Bible Basics for Catholics: Class 1 of 9

get started welcome everyone to Bible basics for Catholics I'm so glad to see you all here tonight in this class we are going to become more familiar with a big story of salvation history contained in our Bibles that way we can be better equipped to read the Bible on our own to appreciate the scripture readings at nasse and most of all to adore our God who has done such great things for us let's open in prayer please stand in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen come Holy Spirit and fill us with your wisdom knowledge and understanding open our minds and speak to us give us the power to understand and relish your scriptures and show us your plan for our salvation may your word truly be for us a lamp into our feet and a light unto our path by your guidance may we follow that light until we reach the everlasting day of eternal light where you reign with the father and the son one God forever and ever amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen let's start off with a practical information this class is going to run nine weeks on Monday nights from 7:00 to 8:15 and it's based on this lovely book Bible basics for Catholics by dr. John Bergsma from the University of Steubenville how many of you have gotten a chance to take a look at this book yeah go ahead and pick one up yeah about half of you I love it I didn't even pick it out and I'm glad I liked it this much seeing as I'm going to be spending the next nine weeks with it but it's wonderful I mean it's a slim easy read but it covers the whole story of salvation history and it's packed with deep insights all over the place and it's probably going to force me to draw pictures we also have our timeline we use this in a previous class via quick journey through the Bible and it was so useful I decided to bring it back for this class we'll go through this in class later tonight I recommend too that you keep this and bring it to future classes also it'd probably be good if you brought a Bible to future classes tonight's class is going to be pure introduction we're going to dig into the book next week tonight we've got two topics reading our Bibles and introduction to salvation history using this lovely timeline will take some time in between the two topics for some group discussion let's start with the big question why did God create the universe take a stab at it anyone James he was born nothing better to do Pope Benedictus I'm sorry no book Benedict the sixteenth tells us God created the universe in order to enter into a history of love with humankind he created the universe so he could love us and not just us here in this room not just us all around the world but every human being throughout history to have a deep relationship with God it is incredibly useful to grasp the history each one of us is called by God to step into that history that he's writing to become a saint but if we don't really know the history if we don't know how God's related to his people in the past if we don't know how we are supposed to relate to God in our prayers and in our actions we are going to have a difficult time fulfilling our potential being the people God created us to be we know God speaks to us through the scriptures but if we're not very familiar with the context of the scriptures with the meaning of them we're gonna have a harder time hearing from God it's a great scene in the book of Acts where Philip the Deacon sees the Ethiopian eunuch reading the book of Isaiah and asks do you understand what you're reading and the Ethiopian says how can I must so it explains it to me Philip takes that as an opening to tell them all about Jesus our goal for the next nine weeks is to get that background so we can understand what we're reading we are going to learn the story the greatest story ever told on a grand scale we're gonna look at the history of God's love for us from Adam and Eve to the early church in the book of Acts we want to have the context to help scripture come alive for us we want to hear God's voice in Scripture hopefully by the end of class we'll be better able to hear from God in the mass readings more empowered to read the Bible on our own with understanding and better able to love and appreciate God for everything he's done for us there will be two main themes in this course covenant and trust there are any number of ways you can unpack the story in the Bible but the author of this book uses the theme of covenant what's a covenant an agreement a relationship and oath yes it's all those things a covenant is an agreement between people that creates a family bond marriage is a covenant adoption is a covenant it's no accident that God uses those metaphors all throughout Scripture to describe our relationship with him baptism is our adoption ceremony we're adopted into gods family as as children we are also the Bride of Christ Paul tells us your maker is your husband Isaiah tells us so throughout history God has made covenants to bring people into his family he makes promises to his people and he always always keeps them so the first team is covenant the second theme is trust God keeps his promises do we believe that every character in scripture is at some point faced with the question do you trust God how does each one answer the serpent says to Eve eat the fruit does she trust God no God says to Noah build a giant boat does he trust God yeah he does God says to Abraham your ninety-year-old wife is going to have a son does he trust God you know not at first but he gets used to the idea my favorite example of how two people answer this question at the beginning of gospel deliverer Zechariah and Mary Luke chapter 1 the angel Gabriel appeared to the priest Zechariah in the temple while he was in the holy place burning incense on the altar and Gabriel said to him Zechariah your prayers have been heard your wife Elizabeth who has been barren he's going to give birth to a son his name will be John and he will be a prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah and he will prepare the way of the Lord and Zechariah replied how shall I know this how can I be sure of this now Zechariah was a faithful Jew and a faithful time he was a priest you should have known better God it's generally patient with people when they ask for signs you realize it's okay you're weak and face you need a little more help with Zechariah Gabriel said since you have not believed me this is your sign you're not going to be able to speak to babies born six months later Gabriel comes to a young woman named Mary and says you're hail full of grace the Lord is with you Mary you have found favor with God you are going to give birth to a son the son of God and his name will be Jesus and Mary says how will this be for I am a virgin sounds almost like what Zechariah said doesn't it accept Gabriel knew what they are thinking Zechariah I said how shall I know this how could I know this is true Zechariah wanted proof Mary said how will this be how are you going to do this nobody's ever had a virgin birth before what's the plan Mary believed and Gabriel answered her question the power of the most high will overshadow you the Holy Spirit will come upon you and near he said I am a handmaiden of the Lord let it be done unto me according to your word so Zechariah doubted God may are you trusted the very same question applies to each one of us today do you trust God you may not have an angel appearing in front of you every day of the week but do the decisions you make do the way to live your life do they show you trust God let's talk about reading our Bibles we all know we should read our Bibles and yet so many of us don't maybe because we can't find the time but mostly I suspect because we don't seem to be getting anything out of it I remember when I was growing up Lutheran I was told that it was a good idea for me to read my Bible every day I could never make myself do it I already know what's in there was my attitude I've heard it in church in Sunday school my whole life it's not like I'm going to find anything new or surprising in there I didn't know a Bible study was for I thought it was supposed to be like academic study you know examine this have I learned anything new today no I don't think so I didn't realize that Christians read the Bible not principally to acquire new head knowledge but to hear the voice of God speaking to us now talking to people who grew up Catholic especially people a generation older than myself plenty of people tell me they were never encouraged to read the Bible or they were even actively discouraged from reading the Bible that's a crying shame the Bible is a divinely inspired Word of God and the Bible is a Catholic book the New Testament was written by Catholics the Old Testament was written by her elder brothers in the faith the Jews the Bible was assembled by Catholics to be read and loved by Catholics to lead Catholics to God the Protestants borrowed it from us anyone who taught that Catholics shouldn't read Scripture was sadly enough following the thinking current at the time but they were departing from the ancient and true tradition of the church here's a quote on reading scripture from the Second Vatican Council from Davie verbum the church has always venerated the divine scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord for in the sacred books the father who is in heaven meets his children with great love and speaks with them and the force and the power in the Word of God is so great it stands as the support and energy of the church the strength of faith for her son's the food of the soul the pure and everlasting source of spiritual life we need to read our Bibles so how do we read our Bibles there's two basic approaches first there's the liturgical way you read the daily Mass readings they're printed in the bulletin you can find them online where you pray the Liturgy of the hours you can use spiffy devotional books of your choice I like Magnificat some people use the word among us or other ones the advantage of reading your Bible liturgically is it it gets you into the liturgical season it helps make connections between the old and new Testament readings and it gives you meaningful chunks of scripture just the right size to meditate on second there's the just pick up your Bible and read it method a few people do read it beginning to end with success which is great but there are more manageable ways to approach it you can pick any book of the Bible and read through it a little each day if you've never done it before start with a gospel or you can pick a favorite passage that you already know to meditate on Psalm 23 the Lord is my shepherd John 3:16 for God so loved the world and then you just start there and read on from there the advantage of the just pick it up and read method is that it can be more personalized you usually cover more scripture and you get a better sense of the context and big picture for the stories so stop and consider for a moment what will description or play in your life if you already have a habit of Bible reading fantastic if you don't do any of these ways sound like it might be worth trying now I fully remember what it was like for me before I became all enthusiastic about the faith when I tried to read the Bible out of a sheer sense of duty yeah it was dry that's not the kind of Bible reading I want to promote to anyone let's consider now how can you make Bible reading meaningful how can we hear from God in Scripture the short answer is we pray we bathe the whole time in prayer we pray before we begin asking God to bless our time with him we read slowly and we pray about what we're reading it's never a contest to zip through the most material we read slowly we stay alert for any word or phrase that jumps out at us let me meditate on it and consider what meaning this has for us what God might be telling us here then we talk with God about what we're hearing what it means how to apply this to our lives and if God gives us the gift of his presence we rest in him we gaze on him we bask in his peace and his love be still and know that He is God what I've just described is called Lexi Oh Divina how many of you are familiar with Lexi Oh Davina just a couple of you okay I'm gonna write this on the board then let's see Oh Davina it's Latin for divine reading it's an ancient method of reading scripture first made popular by the Benedictines fifteen hundred years ago it's still very popular today Lexi Oh Davina is how I first connected with God by reading Scripture it's got four formal steps read meditate pray contemplate so to read the Bible this way you pick a little passage not very long you read it you chew on it you meditate on it see what jumps out at you whatever jumps out at you pray about you talked to God about it and then you contemplate God you spend time in his presence when I tried reading the Bible this way for the first time about ten years ago I experienced the presence of God in Scripture powerfully I think for the first time in my life and I went this works I didn't know it could be so easy but different things work for different people it can take some practice to figure out what works for you blessed Jordan of Saxony one of the early Dominicans said the best way to pray is the way you pray most fervently seeing those prescription reading the best way to read scripture is the way that brings you closest to God take a moment to consider how you best connect with God so we know reading the Bible is a good idea we even have some ideas for ways to approach the Bible we even have some idea of how we can hear from God reading the Bible what still stands in our way in short unfamiliarity with the story god taught his people passed down the story of all that he's done for us that's most of the book of Deuteronomy by the way lay up these words of mine and your heart and in your soul talk of them when you are sitting in the house and when you are walking by the way when you lie down and when you rise most practicing Catholics are very familiar with the Gospels but not familiar enough with the plot of the whole story to feel comfortable just opening up the Bible and reading it you know we don't usually go ah Samuel Isaiah Amos old friends usually not over the next nine weeks we're gonna get familiar with the plot of the whole story I hope that this book in this class will really open up the scriptures for us just like Philip the Deegan open up the scriptures for the Ethiopian so get into small groups you're pretty much already into small groups of your tables and it's time for discussion questions we're gonna discuss our relationship with Sir Richard all right everyone we are going to spend the rest of class looking at the story of salvation history we're gonna go over the whole thing in one shot so that we've got a lovely foundation for everything to come we're gonna start by going through this time I'll take about five minutes just to explain this for those who that have never seen it before it's two-sided and incredibly helpful turn to the first side where it says early world you all see early worlds there on the top left alright so along the top we've got the headings that describe what's going on in Israel's history I'm just gonna read off all the headings early world patriarchs Egypt and Exodus desert wanderings conquest in judges royal Kingdom divided Kingdom exile returned Maccabi in revolt messianic fulfillment and the church so there is all of your Bible history in a nutshell alright go back to early world yeah you got it you're all good under early world it says Genesis 1 through 11 that lion right there tells you what part of the Bible tells this this part of the story now it's interesting is there's 73 books in the Bible but you can tell the plot of the story in just 14 books 14 historical books that go one right after the other I'm gonna read those out loud those books are Genesis Exodus numbers Joshua judges first and second Samuel 1st and 2nd kings Ezra Nehemiah 1st Maccabees Luke and acts so if you're feeling ambitious that's a good alternative to reading through the Bible by the time you're done with this class you're to be more than equipped to read through those 14 books cuz that'll be everything you just covered so if you want to really get a good grasp on the Bible take this class and then don't read those fourteen books you'll uh you'll really have a handle on the Bible after that all right under Genesis 1 through 11 where it says one holy couple one Holy Family one holy tribe those are the covenants there's the different covenants that God makes with his people and notice how each one gets bigger as God's family grows until it finally ends up with one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church all right under the covenants you've got the bounty redline what in the world is that that is the genealogy of Jesus the people on that red line of the ancestors of Jesus so what is the line bounce well way on the far left it's on the time line it says northern countries the land of Canaan south and Egypt do you see that so where the red line is tells you where the action is taking place up top northern countries that's Babylon middle is the land of Canaan Israel and the bottom is Egypt so there's where the people are in a little boxes scattered all over the middle you've got the major events like number one creation number two fall and all the way down at the bottom it tells you the approximate dates of this time period four early world it's just creation through 2000 BC below that it tells you what's the world power at this point in history it starts with Egypt and below that it tells you what's going on in secular history the first event they've got listed is when the great pyramids were built so there's how to read this timeline it's got an incredible amount of information in it about what's going on in the Bible when really good for helping to get a handle on things now you can keep your timelines open in front of you you'll probably want to we're gonna take a walk through the entire Bible we're gonna look at God's plan a forgiveness mercy and salvation and we're going to take a look at who trusted God who didn't here goes in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth he created everything perfect and he created us human beings to share in his own divine life and Happiness were created in His image we have intelligence and reason creativity capacity to love God also gave us free will the freedom to choose our actions the first human beings abused that gift of freedom and chose not to follow God by turning away from God human beings as well as creation itself became corrupted and subject to death you see when people turn away from God they turn away from life itself God is life God is love God is ultimate reality when we sin we're turning away from those things and we become these selfish little beings wrapped in on ourselves filled with our own fretful wants and desires imprisoned in ourselves does this sound familiar to anyone yeah that's what sin does to us but ever since people first turned away from God God has been calling us back he is still the great champion of free will he never forces anyone to come back but he does tell us in the strongest possible terms that only with him can there possibly be life and life abundantly immediately after they sinned God promised Adam and Eve that he would one day send humanity a saviour God expressed his desire to draw all people to himself by establishing a covenant with Noah and his descendants that is to say with every person on the earth yet Noah's descendants set themselves against God building a tower to reach the heavens out of here Tower of Babel so to limit the damage that arrogant people could do God confused their languages and scattered them over the earth in their pride people lost the knowledge of God and became pagans worshipping all kinds of different items now we come to our next time period a time of the patriarchs in order to reveal himself in a deep way to humanity God cultivated one nation on earth as his very own giving them particular knowledge of himself that was Israel that's right the Jewish people became the foundation from which the rest of the world would ultimately learn about God in his salvation God began forming Israel by calling a man named Abram Jesse could picture on this ties in with world history Abram lived around the year 2000 BC in the city of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia it's that first civilization that we all learn about in world history class back in high school if the ziggurats and the Code of Hammurabi and cuneiform tablets the Fertile Crescent this honoring a bell yeah that's where Abraham lived so God called Abram an elderly man to leave his home take his relatives take everything he owned and resettle in a far distant land the land of Canaan did Abram trust God yes he did and for that God made a covenant with him renaming him Abraham which means the father of many nations quite a name to give to someone who doesn't have any kids yeah well look here more about that story in a couple more weeks but God made three promises to Abraham that lay the groundwork for the rest of the Bible you can find them in Genesis chapter 12 verses one through three there's the rest of the Bible in a nutshell but you can also find them on your timeline right in front of where it says Abrahamic covenant God promised Abraham to send its three things land a kingdom and worldwide blessing the first promise was the land of Canaan that's why it's called the promised land that promise was fulfilled when Moses and Joshua led the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the land flowing with milk and honey the second promise was that Abraham's descendants would be kings this was fulfilled by King David and all of the kings that came after him the third promise was that all the people of the earth would be blessed through Abraham that was fulfilled with Jesus Abraham eventually had a son Isaac who had a son Jacob Jacob had twelve sons who were the founding fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel they've got to all twelve of them in a little box there on your chart there's the 12 tribes of Israel two of these sons were especially important for now Judah he's on the red line he's the ancestor of Jesus you've heard Jesus called the Lion of the tribe of Judah yeah and then there's Joseph Joseph moves the whole plot of the story forward I think I'll tell you the story of Joseph because it's fun you want to hear it yeah chess is nodding back there okay Joseph Joseph had visions he had visions that one day his brothers would bow down to him which seems terribly unlikely because he was kid 11 of 12 and his brothers hated him because he was the father's favorite he got the coat of many colors didn't have to work and so Joseph once told his brothers about this vision from God someday you're going to bow down to me and his brothers let him know what they thought of this idea by selling him into slavery Joseph was taken down into Egypt by slavers and from there things only got worse the wife of his master tried to seduce him Joseph refused for moral reasons and she made accusations against him had Joseph thrown in prison so now Joseph was languishing in prison and he still remembers his promise to God that his promise that God made him that some days brothers are going to bow down to him does Joseph trust God yes he does he does not despair he realizes that God still got a plan for him that God keeps his promises so Joseph he's still got this gift from God - of having visions and of interpreting dreams some years pass and Pharaoh has a dream Pharaoh dreams about seven fat cows that are eaten up by seven skinny cows and Pharaoh says who can tell me the meaning of this dream when a Pharaoh's advisor says oh there's a man down in prison that can do dreams I'll get him for you pulls up Joseph in front of Pharaoh and Joseph says your dream means it'll be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of terrible famine Pharaoh tells Joseph great you're in charge of the relief effort get to it and just like that Joseph went for being a slave in prison to prime minister of Egypt number two in the kingdom seven years pass Egypt is prepared for the famine nowhere else is from all around people flood into Egypt refugees because everywhere else they're starving Joseph's brothers come to Egypt they come before Joseph they don't recognize him and they bow at his feet and say we need food Joseph tests them he wants to know if they've changed if they're better than they used to be they passed the test he reveals who he is they all make up he forgives his brothers and he and Pharaoh invite the whole extended family to come down and live in Egypt you can have the best land so the family of Jacob all twelve tribes come down to Egypt their honored guests of the Pharaoh because is the great hero who saved Egypt and all of the Israelites live in Egypt happily ever after the end yeah so now I reached the time period of Egypt and Exodus for 400 years the Israelites became slaves in Egypt the time of Joseph passed until a Pharaoh came that had never heard of Joseph he made the Israelites slaves God called Moses to lead them out of slavery God called to Moses from the burning bush and told him I want you to go to Pharaoh and say let my people go did Moses trust God you know he had a tough time with it at first I mean the charlton heston version did the charlton heston fischer is more than ready to go in there but the version in Exodus he said not me I don't do public speaking tell my brother Aaron to do it instead but Moses went anyway he put one foot in front of the other he went back to Egypt and with his brother Aaron went up in front of Pharaoh and said let my people go and after the first plague or to Moses trusted God he got the hang of it God freed the Israelites from slavery by all sorts of miracles you have the ten plagues you've got the first Passover where the Angel of Death Comes for the firstborn and God tells the Israelites slaughter a lamb take the blood of the lamb and painted on your doorposts and the Angel of Death will pass over you and so from that point for the Israelites celebrated every year how they were saved from death by the blood of the Lamb looking forward to Jesus God brought them out of Egypt part of the Red Sea for them save them from the Egyptian army and the Israelites were intensely grateful for about three days God then led them through the wilderness in a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire he fed them with manna from heaven he gave them water from a rock and then God spoke to them at Mount Sinai and said I am the Lord your God you shall have no other gods before me I am the one who rescued you from slavery God gave them the law the Ten Commandments and established a priesthood to show the Israelites how to live and how to worship Him his people learned that God is all good all holy all powerful all loving and that he protected and cared for them to the Israelites trust him oh here we move into the desert wanderings desert wanderings the Book of Numbers despite all the wonders they saw and all the miracles God worked to protect them the Israelites never didn't trust him they need a golden calf to worship they constantly turned to other idols they constantly grumbled against God where are sick of man oh we want meat none of this miraculous food well God gave them quail they weren't very happy then either did God keep protecting them yes he gave them second chances time and time again he kept feeding them with manna from heaven their clothes never wore out for those forty years in the wilderness the soles of their shoes never wore through in all that laundering God revealed himself to them as a god merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and still the Israelites wouldn't trust him we get two numbers thirteen one year after they left Egypt this is after the ten commandments after they've built the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle God leads them in that pillar of cloud and pillar of fire to the edge of the promised land it's time to go in those ascends in some spies to scout out the land and the spies come back saying there's giants in the land there's huge cities there's big thick walls we feel like grasshoppers next to these people we can't go in there and the people won't go in only two people want to go in two of the spies Joshua and Caleb out of two million people are the two that trust God but everyone else picks up rocks to stone at Joshua and Caleb to death and at that point God comes down and says because you will not go into the Promised Land the land I've prepared for you the land I have promised to give you have it your way you're going to wander in the desert for 40 years your children will go in at that point they went never mind we're ready to go into the Promised Land now and they started marching in it didn't work they'd used up all their chances at that point so they wandered in the desert for 40 years after 40 years of wandering Moses died we've now reached the time period of conquest and judges it was time for Joshua to lead Israelites into the Promised Land the battle plan God gave him involves marching around the city of Jericho for seven days and watching its walls tumbled to the ground did Joshua trust God absolutely you bet he did and for a brief moment in history the Israelites did - they were done with wandering in the wilderness and so to enter the Promised Land they followed every crazy order God and Joshua gave them and there were quite a few but once they settled in the Promised Land and that generation passed the Israelites forgot about God and turned back to idols once more that's the book of Judges if you look at your timeline you'll see a box that says 12 judges and a circle that says seven times the judges were all regional leaders that's why there's 12 of them but they go through this this cycle seven times seven times the Israelites follow this cycle of sin servitude supplication salvation and silence what happens is sin these are lights worshipped idols to bring them to their senses God allows them to be conquered by a foreign nation then the Israelites would turn back to God and pray to him for help god save us and God would raise up a leader like Deborah or Gideon or Samson to save Israel from its enemies and the Israelites would praise God and be intensely grateful for about three days then they'd forget all about it go back to idol worship and the cycle would begin again they've got short memories for about 200 years Israel was stuck in this cycle spiraling downwards into ever greater idolatry and violence until God called a boy named Samuel I think we all heard that one at mass just a couple of weeks ago didn't we yeah God made Samuel a great prophet priest and leader of the people Samuel called the Israelites to repentance and brought them back to worshipping God when Samuel grew old the people feared a return of the cycle of being conquered over and over again and they cried out we want a king to rule us we want a king who can raise an army to protect us a night for us a king Sam he will reminded the people that God was supposed to be their king and that if they would only follow him he would protect them the people said oh yeah that's worked really well in the past give us a king did the Israelites trust God no they never really gave got a chance to be their king samuel was devastated he saw this as the people's ultimate rejection of God but God told Samuel to give the people what they wanted so Samuel anointed a king for them a tall and handsome man named Saul now next time period the Royal Kingdom in or around the Year 1000 BC Saul became Israel's first king did Saul trust God not so much at first he seemed like a good king first he sought out God's will but time revealed that he was both proud and insecure you know to go together pretty often he compulsively felt the need to take the reins out of God's hands and make sure things were done right himself kind of a control freak one day Samuel was running late for church so to speak samuel was supposed to perform a sacrifice before Saul could lead the troops into battle Samuel wasn't there Saul needed to get this show on the road so Saul went up to the altar performed the sacrifice himself Solo wasn't a priest major no no Samuel told Saul you just lost your kingdom and Samuel went out and anointed a teenage shepherd boy named David to be the next king did David trust God absolutely even as a young man David at the Lord's prompting went up against the giant Goliath and when a great victory for Israel David was fearless but when Saul found out that Samuel had anointed David the next king Saul led his armies up and down Israel for years trying to hunt him down and kill him and yet David still trusted God on several occasions David had the opportunity to kill Saul and yet David refused he said I will not raise my hand against the Lord's anointed his life is God's not mine David was a man of mercy he was called a man after God's own heart just like God he was merciful over and over again through all those years on the run hiding in caves he wrote wonderful songs about trusting God through anything the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear the Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid when evildoers assail me to devour my flesh my adversaries and foes they shall stumble and fall and eventually soul died and David became king of Israel God was very close to David the poet full of praises the man of mercy and God made a covenant with him promising him that his royal dynasty would last forever that one of his descendants would be the son of God after David came his son Solomon did Solomon trust God hmm at first Solomon asked God for wisdom and he was the wisest ruler who ever lived he built the temple in the glory of Israel reached its height in his day but in his later years he sinned he was brought down by lust and idolatry he had imported for himself hundreds of foreign wives and concubines who brought with them their local idols and eventually Solomon started worshipping the idols with them and building temples for them tradition has it that Solomon repented towards the end of his life but the damage is already done Solomon had reintroduced idolatry back into Israel God spoke to him for the sake of your father David I will not take the kingdom away from you but I will take it away from your son this is the blackest period in Israel's history so you can tell by the black shading it's a divided Kingdom when Solomon died his son Rhea Bowen became king you'll see his name down there he's the first king in red on the bottom now Rhea poem was a bit of an idiot to say he didn't inherit his father's wisdom as a bit of an understatement he didn't inherit his father's wisdom he didn't know god he was raised by his idol-worshipping mother he he had an absent father imagine that when he became king he asked his father's advisors how should I rule the advisors said your father was a great King but he was very hard on the people taxing them and using their labor to build his monuments lighten their load and the people will love you forever then Raya Bowen went and asked some of his friends you know his drinking buddies how should I rule and his friend said show the people who's boss yeah guess which group you listen to Raya Boehm was harsh and the people revolted against him led by a soldier named Jeroboam Raya Boehm and Jeroboam just to be confusing and the Kingdom of Israel split in two take a look at your timelines in the north you have the Northern Kingdom called Israel all of those kings of the Northern Kingdom starting with Jeroboam were evil Jeroboam he didn't trust God he was afraid that all of his people would defect back to the south - the real king and the real Temple in the real capital of Jerusalem so he built two golden calves policemen in temples and said here are the gods who brought you out of slavery in Egypt clearly his reading of the book of Exodus didn't go so now from that point forward the northern kingdom was engulfed in idolatry God sent great prophets to call them back to himself over and over again like Elijah and Elijah but the people did not listen in the south you have the southern kingdom called Judah there you have the real king and the real temple but the situation there wasn't much better most of those kings down there in red on the chart were idol worshippers again God called great prophet to sit to bring the people back to himself like Isaiah and Jeremiah they warned the people that if they did not turn back to God if they didn't be the light to the nation's that God had called them to be if they didn't prepare the way for the coming of the Lord God would have to take drastic measures to bring them back to their senses he would remove them from the promised land the people did not turn back to God so that's exactly what happened our next time period is exile the northern kingdom was in worse shape so it went first the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians the people of Israel were deported to Assyria 150 years later it was the southern kingdoms turn the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by Babylon people of Judah deported to Babylon in Babylon the people of Judah now known as the Jews were under intense pressure to assimilate to eat pork dressed like everyone else and worship King Nebuchadnezzar as their God in exile in Babylon did the Jews trust God yes they did Daniel got thrown to the Lions for keeping the faith he trusted God and God protected him Shadrach Meshach and Abednego got thrown into the fiery furnace for keeping the faith they trusted God God protected them being taken into exile did bring the Jews to their senses they realized the prophets were right God did do what he said he was going to do he said he would take us into exile for worshiping idols and he did but the prophets also said that the Exile would not last forever that God in His mercy and faithfulness will return us to the land if we repent and turn back to him so the Jews repented they prayed and they waited patiently for God to keep his and of course God did our next time period is the return after 70 years of exile the Persian Emperor Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return to the land they returned in three waves led by zerubabbel Ezra and Nehemiah and it began to rebuild Jerusalem the Jews now very careful to follow God to worship Him alone and to keep the law they had finally learned the lesson of history unfortunately some of them went a little too far on the other direction this is where you start getting the Pharisees so you start getting legalism cropping up where they obey the letter of the law and start neglecting the spirit but in the next time period the Maccabee in revolt the Jews are under serious persecution by a Greek ruler Antiochus Epiphanes who wanted to stamp out Judaism Antiochus killed mothers for circumcising their babies slaughtered old men for refusing to eat pork and he put up a statue of zeus in the temple and demanded the jews bow down did the jews trust god yes they did the jews refused led by the Maccabee family they revolted against their greek overlords and miraculously they won the jews governed themselves for a hundred years until the roman empire took over and the time was ripe for the messiah we've reached the end of the Old Testament and come to the time of Messianic fulfillment 2,000 years ago Jesus our Messiah came to bring salvation to the human race we as human beings could never make up for all the sins that we commit much less all the sins that our forefathers in the faith committed but it's true God and true man Jesus could he could offer His infinite divine life as a sacrifice to make up for all of our sins and give us eternal life now here's a fun question did Jesus trust God trick question right yeah did Jesus trust God the Father well yes of course he did but he struggled I remember the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed he sweated blood he begged God take this cup away from me Jesus in his humanity recoiled at the thought of suffering and dying on the cross he didn't like the thought any more than the rest of us but he surrendered his will to God's not my will but yours be done Jesus trusted God he went to the cross and his act of trust made up for all the times every one of us has failed to trust God at the Last Supper Jesus established the New Covenant the one foretold by the prophets it was a new covenant in his blood we are forgiven and granted eternal life by the sacrifice of his body and blood on the cross we accept this covenant we renew this covenant every time we partake of his body and blood in the Eucharist and finally the church Jesus founded a church grafted onto Israel so now everyone is calls to be a part of God's chosen people Jesus sent the church's Holy Spirit at Pentecost to transform us from within so that we can grow to love God love neighbor live lives worthy of Christ and spread the good news of salvation that's what we find in the Bible we find God's great plan of salvation we also find a great cloud of witnesses people in every age who demonstrate for us how to have a relationship with God they show us that God really does speak to us he calls us to have open ears open hearts and to follow him and loving trust we learn from them that we really can trust God that God knows what he's doing every time the God knows what's best for us better than we do we can trust him spend time with Scripture soak in the life stories of all these people soak in the divine wisdom soak in the presence of the saints of old soak in the presence of God so when the time comes for you to step up and answer the question do you trust God you'll be ready amen that's all I've got you know the non Catholic Bible reading phase lasted a long time I as far as I can trace it back it started in the late twelve hundreds with the Cathar heretics and the Catholic Church was so what's the word I'm looking for felt so challenged by these heretics who were getting their ideas from reading the Bible incorrectly and they don't want people reading the Bible incorrectly maybe the people of this region shouldn't read the Bible and from there especially after the Protestant Reformation that cultural idea kind of spread in the Catholic Church that if you encourage people to read their Bibles too much they might get all kinds of crazy ideas and decide not to be Catholic anymore yeah exactly maybe they didn't trust people to interpret it right well thank goodness they've gone back to the way it was before that and now we as Catholics are encouraged to read our Bibles again which is wonderful just the way it should be which is the way it was in the early church and it's the way it is today thank God any other questions all right let's close in prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen let's pray the Lord's Prayer together our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation

Channel: Catholic Bible Studies

Views: 83,517

Rating: 4.8794289 out of 5

Keywords: kristin van tilborg, bible basics, Bible Basics For Catholics: A New Picture Of Salvation History, salvation history, catholic bible, lectio divina, bergsma, catholic bible study

Id: c0r5mXeyMV8

Length: 58min 5sec (3485 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 02 2015